Grading made simple.... sigh

I think I miiight have heard the Hallelujah Chorus in my head when I finally figured this out!

I've seen the Fist to Five check aaaallll over Pinterest, but there is a difference between pinning my life away and actually using these things in my classroom.

I began by using the Fist to Five as a quick check during a lesson, I like to try to make it happen before and after when I can, and I've even noticed that it makes my kiddos feel great to go from a 1 to a 5 within the course of the lesson!

The BEST part about this - I am now using the same parameters of the fist to five for almost all of my grading. Every Friday, I take home the 2,3, or 5 (eeek! I'm the worst!) assessments that I give the class that day. As I grade, I keep in mind just how much the students can demonstrate their understanding *** what's up Common Core! ***

Redos: Students who score 1s or 2s have the opportunity to ReDo their assessment, these must be turned into our INBOX within a week, otherwise their scores will remain the same. Students who score a 1 - are part of my re-teach group (during Daily 5) I'm still working out some kinks here and there - like when to re-teach just Math and when to re-teach ELA, I'm thinking about trying 2 days for each. We make Daily 5 time a priority and are now having at least one round per day - the kids LOVE it. I'm also going to start keeping track of how many ReDos we have for any given assessment for my own planning purposes.

Meanwhile, the first Trimester in 5th grade was a hot mess when it came to missing assignments and last minute grading. After some brainstorming, I've come up with a procedure that is not only helping keep my kiddos accountable for their missing work, but is saving me a ton of last minute grading headaches - the eternal procrastinator, grading 33 assessments is bad enough.... waiting a few weeks and letting 99 assessments pile up, no fun.

I am now sending home a progress report every Thursday, sounds nuts - but it is keeping me (and my students) accountable. It is keeping my grading on track and is empowering my students to come to me and ask for help waaaay more often! I have a missing work log on the wall - I add names on Monday and give these students the week to both ask about and complete their assignments. I am not lowering grades for late/missing work within this week because I feel that the grade would not be a reflection of student knowledge and isn't that what grades are all about? However, and I've been super clear about this with my class, after a week - I won't accept anything that was missing. The log is erased and the grade remains an M.

Grading is a breeze now :) Now the only thing I need to do is focus on grading aaaaallll this writing!